At the Marina of Marseilles,
The first big rehearsal for the next Olympic Games in Paris 2024 is in full swing in the Marina de Marseille, the sailing test event, where the athletes of the 10 disciplines present next year will take their marks until Sunday. The opportunity, too, to gauge yourself against the competition and refine your ambitions for next year.
“We made this test event the number one objective of the year. It’s a chance to prepare with such an event when you organize the Olympics at home. We are in conditions very close to the Olympics, from a sporting and logistical point of view”, executive Guillaume Chiellino, technical director of the French Sailing Federation.
“A great lesson for next year”
And in this little game of sizing up with the others, the athletes of the French team are doing really well. Like Camille Lecointre, world champion in 2016 and double bronze medalist in 2016 and 2021 and Jérémie Mion world champion 2018, currently first in the general classification in 470, mixed double dinghies, before the final called “medal breed “.
“It’s been a great week. Honestly, being at the top of the standings before the medal race is great. If we had been told that at the start of the week, we would have signed immediately, ”savors Jérémie Mion. Especially since the mixed doubles played all the series of the week with a “Damocles sword” above the head after a UFD, “U Flag Disqualification”, for having crossed the starting line of the first race too early. “Living through this and knowing that it’s not over is a great lesson for next year,” he says.
Do not “throw in” the towel too quickly
With this leading position, but only one point ahead, at the start of the final, Jérémie Mion and Camille Lecointre are aiming for nothing but a victory on Saturday. “It will be an experience to live a race in this position, it is a rehearsal for the Games where we will find almost the same stress conditions”, already anticipates Camille Lecointre.
Jean Baptiste Benaz, too, is doing rather well in ILCA 7, the male solo dinghies. The 2022 world champion was second overall before a frustrating day on Thursday, which finally relegated him to sixth position. But in sailing everything changes very quickly. “I haven’t thrown in the towel at all, I’m 19 points from first place and in the medal race alone, 20 points have been awarded. I still have two rounds left, plus the final. I’m all the way, I just have to catch two or three guys and I’m on the podium, ”aims the one who can also aim for a medal next year.
New disciplines boost French ambitions
The arrival of new disciplines, the foil board, and especially the kite foil, have given the French delegation even more ambitions for the next Paris 2024 Olympic Games. new discipline. We started preparing our athletes a long time ago, and we can see that it is paying off. We have exceptional coaching and athletes, with four men and three women in the world top 10, ”recalls the DTN.
The chances of a gold medal also rely heavily on these new disciplines for the France team, as evidenced by the first places of Axel Mazella and his counterpart in women, Lauriane Nolot. As since the start of 2023, she largely dominates the women’s table of this test event, after her eight victories in sixteen rounds. Enough to qualify directly for the final, a privilege reserved for the first two in the general classification.
Six Medal Chances
“I’m still in the top 5, this consistency allows me to go out with a few points ahead. I was comfortable the whole time, so I didn’t put pressure on myself. On some rounds, yes I am far ahead. I even tell myself that I am quickly in comfort zones, but you have to be careful, it goes quickly. To get ahead, but also for others to catch up,” the 25-year-old kite surfer wants to be cautious. She also prefers to focus on Friday’s final, and the next World Championships in August, before discussing her ambitions for the next Olympics. The foil boards, with Lucie Belbeoch, and Nicolas Goyard, can also aim for gold next year.
If the French Sailing Federation has set itself the ambition of “raising” its “level of play in the ten disciplines to play for a medal”, according to its DTN Guillaume Chiellino, “six chances of medals stand out: two in foil board , two in kite foil, the mixed 470 and the ILCA 7”. In the others, France will rather act as an outsider. But the ambitions of the French sailing delegation remain high for these Olympic Games at home, when we know that it has never done better than three medals in the same edition.